Let's continue looking
at church unity today. Let's be reminded of three important cautions
regarding unity:
1
Unity must never be at the expense of truth. We are NOT all headed in
the same direction. We do NOT all serve the same God. Only those who look to
Christ as Savior are really our brothers and sisters in the faith.
2
Unity does not mean ignoring controversial issues. We must not ignore
those areas on which we disagree. The matters we disagree on are important to
our growth and development. However, the attitude in which we carry on our
debate must be one of love: first for God, second for each other. The process
of discussion and debate is what sharpens and deepens us . . . even if we never
convince each other to change positions.
3
Unity is not the same as Uniformity. We are not called to be "the
same" we are called to be one. Variety is valuable. In many cases the
issue does not boil down to who is "right" and who is
"wrong". Many issues are simply a matter of personality and
preference. Different means "Different". It doesn't mean "better
than" or "worse than", it just means "different".
It is time that we were clear on what we are about. We
are about glorifying Christ, not our particular gathering of followers. We will
have different approaches, different points of emphasis, but agree that there
is one Lord, one faith, and one Baptism.
It's time we worked together rather than against each
other. Time to encourage rather than divide. Time to work together so our
friends and neighbors might be kept from perishing apart from Christ. It's time
to stop making it easy for the Devil. AMEN?
